There is still time to see around 20 works by Martin Parr and Tom Wood at the Walker Art Gallery Liverpool in an exhibition that runs until 18 August. The photographs, which were taken in the late 1970s and 80s, are drawn from the art gallery’s own collection and concentrate on both photographers’ Merseyside work forming an exploration of the similarities and differences between the two photographers.

A small selection of Parr’s Irish scenes are included as well as possibly the earliest work by Parr in a public collection (New Brighton, 1976). Images from some of Wood’s seminal projects, such as All Zones Off Peak (bus journeys in and around Liverpool) and Looking for Love (Chelsea Reach nightclub, New Brighton) are also on show. In connection with the City of Contrasts Photography Competition 2013 two pairs of photographs by Tom Wood from the exhibition are on display at Liverpool Cathedral until 26 August. Tom Wood at Liverpool Cathedral.

BLACKOUT: LIVERPOOL JOHN MOORE’S UNIVERSITY

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BLACKOUT was shown as part of the festival and was curated by Imogen Stidworthy and festival director Patrick Henry. The show considered the relationship between viewer and (photographic) subject. Asking: what is at stake in this relationship and to what extent do they constitute each other? In BLACKOUT the presence and nature of the subject is brought into question, even to the verge of disappearance. The show is now closed.

Of note was Danica Dakic’s absorbing short video Emily which places the viewer in the charged space between a young deaf girl and her teacher, as she is inducted into the signs and facial expressions of sign language. While Dominique Hurth‘s Un Cup D’Ull (from Catalan, meaning ‘a glance’) combined archival photographs with text to reflect, in highly personal terms, on how what we see is incorporated into broader historical narratives.

I am co-founder of Tri-pod, a creative initiative supporting lens-based artists with personal projects in process, and am a regular contributor to Photofusion Photography Centre's website, as well as contributing essays to Hotshoe, a quarterly contemporary photography magazine. Previously, I was the editorial content manager and project developer of Frame and Reference, an online visual arts magazine for the South East from 2013-14.
The Roaming Eye is curated by Miranda Gavin. All views are my own.

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